Publishers of web pages often desire specific data regarding how, and which, visitors interact with a website. They frequently use this information to present their content in a manner that is conducive to achieving a website goal (e.g., educating visitors about a given topic, directing visitors to a specific subset of the information on the website, selling goods or services, and/or directing a visitor's attention to one or more included advertisements).
Web analytics systems provide a way for publishers to obtain detailed information regarding visitor interactions with their site. For example, an analytics provider can supply a website publisher with script code for insertion into one or more web pages for which analytics information is desired. The scripts can direct a visitor's web browser to transmit information to the analytics provider's tracking server, to supply a more complete picture of visitor behavior. In order to track usage at an individual level, such scripts have traditionally needed to create a small file known as a “cookie” on the user's computer. More recently, however, web browsers are becomingly increasingly stricter in accepting cookies—in some cases blocking cookies altogether—thereby preventing conventional tracking. Embodiments of the present invention are directed to alternative techniques for tracking web browsing activity.